Hulu Disney+ The Bear (1 Viewer)

[Josh Dial]

The Bear just finished its second season (airing on Hulu in the US, Disney+ in Canada).

I was surprised not to see a thread on this.

In my view, the first season was one of the best shows on TV in 2022. Better than Severance, better than Andor, better than We Own This City. In my opinion only Station Eleven bested it (and Station Eleven started in 2021 so maybe it doesn't count).

Episode 7 of season 1 has a 20-minute single-take that is just tremendous. Episode 8 has the best 6-minute monologue of the year.

A quick spoiler free summary of the plot: Carmen, an award winning NYC chef (from a 3 Michelin Star restaurant), returns home to Chicago to run his brother's sandwich shop after the brother commits suicide and leaves the failing restaurant to Carmen. Carmen then tries to impose the structured brigade system (among other things) to the chaotic system his brother left.

The show is 50% adrenaline and 50% anxiety. I'm not joking when I say I rarely feel as anxious as I do watching this show.

The cast is uniformly great, without a single misstep. The personal (often extreme close-up) and sometimes frantic camera work really works with the show's subject matter.

I won't get into the second season in case people want to discuss the first season for a bit. But the show clearly struck a chord in the industry since the second season had a veritable parade of guest stars: Will Poulter, Alex Moffat, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, Jamie Lee Curtis (!!!), and Olivia Colman (!!!!).

The episodes vary in length from 20 minutes to 60 minutes. You can easily binge the first season in two nights.

10/10

 

[DaveF]

I finished S2 last night. I was searching for a thread this afternoon. I was thinking about starting one just now.

 

[DaveF]

Agree with everything @Josh Dial said. The Bear S1 is extraordinary. Incredibly, S2 improves on it in some key ways.

 

[Sam Posten]

Best show ever

 

[Greg.K]

The show is 50% adrenaline and 50% anxiety. I'm not joking when I say I rarely feel as anxious as I do watching this show.

Ain't that the truth. We took 2 days to get through S02E06 ("Fishes") because it was that stressful.

 

[Malcolm R]

Hard to believe a story about a sandwich shop would be that intense. Maybe I should watch out for more drama at the local Subway.

 

[Josh Dial]

For its first season The Bear and its cast were nominated for the 2023 Emmys in basically every major category:

1. Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Jeremy Allen White
2. Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Ebon Moss-Bachrach
3. Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Ayo Edebiri
4. Best Writing for a Comedy Series: Christopher Storer
5. Best Directing for a Comedy Series: Christopher Storer
6. Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Jon Bernthal and Oliver Platt

Notably, the show is in the comedy series categories. Frankly, I think Succession, The White Lotus, and The Last of Us are lucky The Bear is in comedy. I think The Bear is better than all of the dramatic shows, and would have had a very real chance at "upsetting" those categories.

As it stands, I think The Bear is better than its competitors in all of the comedy categories.

 

[jayembee]

Funny...when my wife and I saw ads for this, we just didn't think it was for us. Maybe it still isn't, but based on the comments here, I might give it a try. Assuming that I can find time to watch it...

 

[Josh Dial]

Funny...when my wife and I saw ads for this, we just didn't think it was for us. Maybe it still isn't, but based on the comments here, I might give it a try. Assuming that I can find time to watch it...

If it helps, I think you can blast through all of season one in under 3 hours.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

Hulu calls it a comedy for some reason, so when a co-worker told me one day "hey, you like to cook, you should watch The Bear" I was really gunshy. I did not want a comedy but gave the first episode a look see (it was what, 20 minutes long? I could spend that time.)

And holy shit was it good. We powered through that first season so quickly. The second took us longer since the MIL is not a fan.

One of the most stressful shows I think I've seen in a long time (or maybe forever.) SO MUCH TENSION around literally ever corner.

I really enjoyed the second season. The quiet moments with Marcus and Richie especially. As @Greg.K said - Fishes was was that stressful, so it was nice the next episode was a hell of a palate cleanser.